Method of making couplings.



0. WE BIRCH WOOD.

METHOD OF MAKING COUPLINGS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26, 1911. I

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G. W. BIRCHWOOD; METHOD OF MAKING COUPLINGS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26, 1911.

Patented Jan. 14, 1913.

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following is a specification.

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METHOD OF MAKING COUPLINGS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedJan. 14, 1913.

Application filed December 26, 1911. Serial No. 667,711.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, .OHABLES W. BIRCH- woon, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in. Methods ofMaking Couplings, of which the This invention relates to the method of making couplings for connecting movable rods, levers and other mechanical elements and particularly to those adapted for use in automobile construction for connecting various movable parts such, for instance, as the throttle with its operating handle or lever, etc.

One of the objects of the invention is the provision of a novel and improved method ofmaking acoupling which will permit of a maximum amount of movement between the members thereof while at the same time eliminating all lost motion between the parts, which method enables the coupling to he produced with a minimum amount of labor and at a minimum cost, and which provides a coupling each member of which is of thereb afiording Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will be manifest as the invention is'better understood by reference to the following description when considered in connection withIt-he accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings'Figure 1 is a side elevatlonal view of a piece of metal stockfrom which the socket member of the coupling isformed Fig. 2shows the stock after it' has been turned down'to form the shank of the socket member and the hole has been drilled in the larger end;v Fig. 3 is a sectional viewon the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an elcvational view of the socket.

member after the slots have been milled in the walls. of the socketendof the -meinber; Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 55 offFig. 4; Fig; 6 shows the walls of the socketmember compressed to form the ball receiving socket; F1 7 is a detail view of the ball member; F1g..8 is an elevational view of the complete-coupling. showing in full and dotted lines the extreme positions oithe ball and socket members; and-Fig. 9 israperspectiveview of a-system of levers.

and links'showing various applications of the coupling.

In carrying out my novel method which results in the production of an improved and highly eflicient coupling, a piece of,

blank stock 11 of any suitable metal, preferably steel, is turned to the form shown in Fig. 2 toproduce the reduced shank portion 12. A hole or cavity 13 is then drilled in the larger or socket end of the stock to the required de th, the bottom of the hole being. preferahly rounded 'to form a bearing surface for the ball at the bottom of the completed socket as shown in Fig. 3. The walls of the hole 13 are next provided with a transversely extending slot 14:, the axis of said slot lying in the plane of the longitudinal axis of the hole. The side walls of said slot are flared or curved outwardly as indiextending through opposite sides of the hole in the socket member may obviously be out bythe milling tool at a single operation. After the slot has been cut to the required depth the stock or the tool is "preferablychanged to ta er or incline the lower ends of the slot as s ownat 16 to permit a maximum relative movement between the ball and the socket members without destroying orimpairing the bearing surface of the bottom of the socket. The shank 12, either before or after the formation of the slot 14, is drilled and-tapped to provide the internally' threaded bore 17 adapted for-connec-f tion with the threaded end of a connecting rod or other member withwhichthe coupling is to be employed.

The ball member shown in Fig. 7 may beconstructed "in any desired-manner but is preferably turned from a single piece of metal stock to formthe shank 18 having the contracted neck 19 at the end of which is formed the ball 20. The outer end of the shankis preferably threaded as indicated at 21, for connection with the arm of a lever or the threaded bore of a'connecting rod a that the arcs of both n K ,t Limit and the head 22 may be square or hexagonal in form to accommodate a wrench by means of which the member may be held or turned in threading the end 21 into the member with which it is to be connected.

ln assembling my coupling" a ball member is inserted into the slotted socket end of the socket member, shown in l, whereupon the extremities of the socket walls on each side of the slot 1% are compressed about the hall into the position shown in lBig. 6; the ball member, however, being omitted from this figure. This compression of the socket walls about the ball may be readily accomplished in a press or ordinary con struction and, when the ends are brought together or toward each other into the position shown in ll, the inclined outer edges 15 are brought into alinement with the straight or bottom edges olf the slot 14 thereby producing an elongated slot of substantially uniform width having parallel walls adapted toaccommodate the neck 19 ot the shank l8 and extending through an arc considerably greater than 180 lt will be evident that the length of the slot in the completed socket is d pendent upon the depth of the original slot 1t and, since in actual practice this slot isusually cut nearly to the bottom or" the hole 13, as shown in Fig. l, a slot of maximum length is produced permitting maximum relative movement between the ball and socket members o the coupling; this movement being further augmented by tapered or inclined bottoms l6 otthe slot. iihe slot l t lies in the plane of the lo "itudinal anis of the socket member and i the ball and socket members are it will he manifest embers lie in a conr mon plane so that a straight connection between two cor ally mounted rods can be effected, it ClESliBCl. z 8 are shown the extreme positions of the socket member elatively to tne ball member. li will be evident that connect-ions can be established by means ol this coupling" between members disposed at any angle relatively to each other between the two extreme positions shown in this figure.

@n 9 is shown a system of levers and links connected by a coupling made in pursuance of my invention illustrate several of the many ways of connecting various elements by means of the same, Upon the block 231 have mounted the upright posts 72%, 52 5 and 26, respectively. An elongated bearing 2'? is lined to the upper end Or the post 24: and within the hearing is mounted a shalt provided with a radial arm 28 at one end andan operating button or handle 529 at its opposite end. A ball member 30 is mounted on the side of the arm 28 and is connected with the socket member 31 in f notc es post 25 is pivotally mounted a bell-crank lever comprising the arm 32 and the arm 33 mounted to move in a horizontal plane. 'l he hall member St is threaded into the end of the arm 32, the socket member being connected therewith in the usual manner. A link 36 connects the socket members 31 and as shown. lhe arm 33 is also provided with a longitudinally.extending ball member 87 connected with the socket member 38. Upon the post 26 is mounted the bell-crank lever comprising the arms 39 and 40 mounted to movein a vertical plane, the arm 39 being provided with a laterally ere tending hall member 41 and its companion socket member 42, the socket members 38 and 42 being connected by the link 43. A longitudinally extending ball member projects from the end of the arm 40 and its socket member to has connected therewith a link or rod 46 as shown. Une position of the various elements illustrated in this figure is shown by full lines and another position by dotted lines. The connection between the arms 28 and 32 illustrate how connections can be effected with the ball members projecting laterally from the socket memers and, it will be obvious that as the arm 28 is moved from full to dotted line position, thesocket member 31 will. move about the ball member 30 in a plane substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the ball member while the socket 35 will move about the ball member 34 in a plane substantially parallel with the longitudinal axis of the ball member 34;. The connection between the arms 83 and 39 shown in full and dotted line position illustrate how two arms, one moving in a horizontal plane and the other in a vertical plane, can be connected by means of this coupling. From the dot ted line position of the link i it will be seen that one end of the link 4:3 has moved downwardly while the opposite end has simultaneously moved horizontally This movement is a very common one in automobile construction and this coupling is particularly adapted for connecting elements moving in this manner since a con.- nection can be established which will permit absolute :treedonr'ot' movement or the parts without involving any lost motion between them.

Heretoitore a connection between members moving" in diderent planes has been established by the use of a double universal joint at each end of the connecting link but lost motion cannot be obviated in a universal joint and, furthermore, the durability and efiiciency of such a joint is much inferior to the hereinbefore described form of ball and socket coupling.

lt will be apparent that l have produced a ball and socket coupling comprisingmerely two members, an integral ball menu ber consisting of a ball'and a shank and an integral socket member consisting of a socket and a shank. The socket is preferably tempered, after the parts have been assembled, to relieve the walls thereof of the tension and compression under which they are placed by compressing the socket walls about the ball and also to strengthen the walls of the socket member so that all liability of separation of the ball and socket members under tension is obviated. It will be evident that when the ball member is fixedly mounted the socket member is capable of a reat range of movement about the ball mem er either, in planes coincident with the longitudinal axis of the ball member or, in a number of difierent planes intersecting said axis. The socket fits snugly around the ball thereby eliminating all lost motion so that the coupling is particularly adapted for uses where transmission of motion without loss is required.

'While I have shown and described an improved method for making va coupling of the form hereinbefore described, it will be understood that the said method may be applied with equal efiiciency to the manufacture of couplings difieringin various mechanical details, and that numerous minor changes in the method may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention or sacrificing any of the material advantages thereof.

I claim:

1. The method of making a coupling, consisting in forming "a depression in a piece of metal stock, slotting the walls of said de pression in the plane of the longitudinal axis of the depression, inserting a ball in said depression, and compressing the walls of the depression around the ball to form a socket in which said ball is disposed.

2. The method of making a coupling, consisting in forming a cavity inthe end of a piece of metal stock, forming tapered slots in the walls of said cavity, and forcing the outer ends of said walls together around a ball to form a socket in which said ball isdisposed.

3.- The method of making a socket member for a coupling, consisting in forming a hole in a-piece of stock, and removing portions of the walls of said hole to form a plurality of oppositely disposed slots wider at the mouth of the hole than at the bottom thereof.

.4. The method of making a socket member for a coupling, consisting in drilling a hole in a piece of metal stock, and milling slots in the opposite walls of said hole and in the plane of the longitudinal axis of said hole, said slots being widened at their outer ends to produce a flaring mouth for said hole.

5. The method of making a coupling, consisting in drilling a hole in the end of 'a piece'of metal stock, providing slots in the walls of said hole, the upper ends of said slots being curved outwardly to intersect the uncut .portions of said walls, inserting a ball provided with a shankin said hole and pressing. the free edges of the-walls of said hole together to form a socket embracing said ball, and having an elongated slot of substantially uniform width to accommodate the ball shank.'

6. The method of making a coupling, consisting in turning a piece of stock to form a shank with the ball on one end thereof, boring a depression in the end of another piece of stock, milling a slotwider. at its mouth than at its bottom in the walls of said depression, inserting the ball in the CHARLES W. BIRCHWOOD. v

Witnesses:

, WM. 0. BELT, M; A. Kmnm.

. depression, and compressing the walls of I 

